We've come a long way in our love affair with FPGAs. What do you think?

I really like FPGAs but I'm not deep in love to them, at least not yet, I don't have professional experience using FPGAs, only in college with a Spartan 6 board.

I think your experience is common. I gather FPGA design isn't a big focus in EE programs. Perhaps if you have the time, you can attend a webinar/workshop and learn some more about the technology. Thanks for responding

16. Do you love voting in element14 FPGA polls ? 

Love is a pretty strong word.  I might apply it to element14 but not to FPGAs. With great power comes a great big learning curve. And their flexibility is offset by their inefficiency. As far as FPGAs go, I "like" the Polar Fire concept.

I first was introduced to FPGA's in the Element14 Summer of FPGAs Events. It's been a really wicked Hard relationship but When things work I think it's amazing. What a concept, Writing hardware logic in code!

I've tried to translate love into "interested in". I love my family , maybe the dog (until she died) but that's it.

However, I answered 'other' to a lot of questions.

What do you currently love to do with FPGAs?

Use them in production designs, typically for low power low cost applications, and also in bespoke test gear appplications.

4. What about FPGAs would you really love to learn more about?

How other people write HDL (VHDL for preference), sensible examples of real projects.

5. When you choose an FPGA to fall in love with, what quality is most lovable to you?

Availability, easily used packages (TQFP or QFP), low power, low cost.

6. What FPGA architecture are you in love with?

Feature size isn't arhitecture. I rather like Effinix's architecture where peripherals and core are more independent and logi can routing are the same cells. It fits with my other goals (above).

9. Do You Love TCL scripting?

I like the idea of Python scripting better.

11. Which of these applications would you love to apply FPGA technology?

Small emdbedded systems.

13. Are you in love with being a:

I'm a general purose engineer, do software, hardware, analogue, digital, cut metal, etc.

15. Do you love being a software engineer who works on FPGA designs?

No - you need to be a hardware and software engineer to work in the FPGA space that interests me.

MK

I've fallen in love with FPGAs . I learned VHDL for simulation in the late 80s thanks to an instructor who came from France and had good industry contacts. At my university in Spain, there were no teachers trained in HDL yet.

We did VHDL practices for ASIC design. I remember having to submit our work in batches and wait for over a day to get the results. After that, I never dealt with any HDL again, and I spent almost 40 years of my life developing software, first for Apple and then in JAVA, and firmware development in C and C++ for access control systems and attended and unattended payment terminals.

Last year, I was lucky enough to be selected to participate in element14's '7 Ways to Leave Your Spartan-6' design challenge and later in the Experimenting with Sensor Fusion challenge. It's incredible how much I've learned about FPGAs in those months.

Now I do FPGA projects for fun and to better understand the technology used in some of the HSMs that I have to use in my daily work.

Fun survey.  Number 5 dealt with the qualities you consider when choosing an FPGA.  I like number of LEs optimized for price.  I didn't see this option reflected so I had to choose other.  I am always on the look out for an FPGA where you pay $1 to $2 per 1000 logic elements.

For number 10 I think I was the only one who loved the 0 to 50MHz frequency range.  I guess the rest of you like the challenge of overcoming timing violations.   

You really have taken a deep dive into FPGAs.  All the more amazing when you consider just how recent your exploration in this area begun.  By the way I think question 15 was written with you in mind.

No problem. We can also post polls.